The Emancipatrix eBook

Corrus and Dulnop were to be buried in that spot every
day for as many days as there were pebbles in the
heap; in other words, until they died. Every
night they would be dug up, and every morning buried
afresh. And to keep them from telling any of
the villagers where they had found the pyrites, they
were to be deprived of water all day long. By
night their tongues would be too swollen for speech.
For they had been sentenced to the No Shade torture,
as well; their heads would be exposed all day long
to the burning sun itself.

XI

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

It is significant that Billie, because of her connection
with the bee, Supreme, was spared the sight that the
doctor saw from Rolla’s point of view.
Otherwise, the geologist’s wife might have had
a different opinion of the matter. As it was—­

“Corrus and Dulnop,” said she as cooly
as Supreme herself might have spoken, “are not
the first to suffer because they have discovered something
big.”

Whereupon her husband’s wrath got beyond his
grip. “Not the first! Is that all
you can say?” he demanded hotly. “Why,
of all the damnably cruel, cold-blooded creatures
I ever heard of, those infernal bees—­”

Van Emmon stopped, unable to go on without blasphemy.

The doctor had got over the horror of what he had
seen. “We want to be fair, Van. Look
at this matter from the bees’ view-point for
awhile. What were they to do? They had to
make sure, as far as possible, that their supremacy
would never be threatened again. Didn’t
they?”

“Oh, but—­damn it all!” cried
Van Emmon. “There’s a limit somewhere!
Such cruelty as that—­no one could conceive
of it!”

“As for the bees,” flared Billie, “I
don’t blame ’em! And unless I’m
very much mistaken, the ruling class anywhere,
here on the earth or wherever you investigate, will
go the limit to hold the reins, once they get them!”

The expression on Van Emmon’s face was curious
to see. There was no fear there, only a puzzled
astonishment. Strange as it may seem, Billie had
told him something that had never occurred to him before.
And he recognized it as truth, as soon as she had
said it.

“Just a minute,” remarked Smith in his
ordinary voice; “just a minute. You’re
forgetting that we don’t really know whether
Rolla and Cunora are safe. Everything depends
upon them now, you know.”

In silence the four went back into telepathic connection.
Now, of course, Smith and Van Emmon were practically
without agents. The prisoners could tell them
nothing whatever except the tale of increasing agony
as their torture went on. All that Van Emmon and
Smith could do was lend the aid of their mentality
to the efforts of the other two, and for a while had
to be content with what Billie, through Supreme, and
the doctor, through Rolla, were able to learn.
However, Kinney did suggest that one of the other
two men get in touch with Cunora.